Residents of towns like Rainelle and White Sulphur Springs continue to gut their homes and clean up debris. Many residents are now moving on to the next…
Residents of towns like Rainelle and White Sulphur Springs continue to gut their homes and clean up debris. Many residents are now moving on to the next step: applying for assistance and then deciding on their next move.
The question is: will they stay and rebuild or go elsewhere?
Patrick Burns’ home on Mill Hill Road in White Sulphur Springs was severely damaged in the flood. He’s registered with Federal Emergency Management Agency and an inspector has been out to take a look at his home. But he says he’s still fighting his way through red tape.
“When he came up here, he was talking about the foundation of it. He said in FEMA’s view, the house is salvageable. But, I’m looking at it. This is twisted and the whole house is twisted,” said Burns. “My insurance company–who I have flood insurance with–the adjustor was real quick and a really good guy. But now we have to wait on an engineer to come look at the house.”
Individual grants from FEMA are capped at $33,000 per person. For most, that’s not enough to totally rebuild. But Burns says would like to stay in the same neighborhood. He just isn’t quite sure if he’ll be able to at all.
“We’re going to try to—probably—buy another house somewhere here out of the floodplain. If we can. But, the big thing is, I’m not sure it’s going to be possible because—I don’t know—I’ve heard reports that there are a hundred people looking for places to stay because they couldn’t live there,” said Burns.
While on the ground residents are focused on cleaning out the old and replacing it with new, State Police and the West Virginia National Guard continue a search for a final missing person. The hardest hit by flooding, 15 people died in Greenbrier County. The final missing person, reportedly a teenage girl, is presumed to be dead.
A sheriff says a body found in Greenbrier County over the weekend has been identified as a woman who had been missing following last month’s devastating floods.
Greenbrier County Sheriff Jan Cahill said Wednesday that one of two bodies found Saturday was positively identified as 33-year-old Nataysha Hughes of White Sulphur Springs.
Cahill says her body was found along property owned by The Greenbrier resort about a mile from her home.
The sheriff says the name of the other victim found Saturday hasn’t been confirmed by the state medical examiner’s office.
Greenbrier County was the hardest-hit from the June 23 floods. Authorities have said 14 people died and one person is missing and presumed dead. Statewide, 23 people were killed.
As many West Virginians continue to clean up from last week’s flooding, concerns about theft and looting linger in communities hit hard by the storm.
Homes are being left open to dry and many residents affected by the disaster are staying elsewhere — in shelters or with friends and family. The level of concern varies from town to town and some communities are implementing curfews to stave off the possibility of suspicious activity.
On Thursday night, as a massive storm ravaged many areas of the state, pharmacist Aaron Gwinn sat at home, thinking to himself about the possibility of someone breaking into his business — the Greenbrier Medical Arts Pharmacy, a few miles northeast of downtown Lewisburg. Sometime over the course of Thursday night, with all of the rain coming down and flood waters starting to rise in neighboring communities, Gwinn said someone actually was trying to break in.
“In the wake of all that was taking place, somebody thought that it would be a good opportunity — with the police diverted elsewhere — they could break into the pharmacy with minimal effort and wouldn’t encounter any resistance,” Gwinn said.
Credit Dave Mistich / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Pharmacist Aaron Gwinn speaks to a customer on the phone at the Greenbrier Medical Arts Pharmacy in Lewisburg. He filed a report with local police for an attempted break-in at the store that occurred last Thursday as storms ravaged the area.
When he arrived at the pharmacy Friday morning, a window was broken, but nothing was stolen. Others in the surrounding areas didn’t have the same luck.
Longtime resident of White Sulphur Springs Sadie Fraley said a friend of hers had a stove stolen out of her home over the weekend. Fraley remembers seeing a lot of unfamiliar faces around town.
“It kind of scared me because I was ready to approach them before I called the police and say ‘Hey, if you don’t have business here, you need to move on,’ ” Fraley recalled.
“I’m glad I didn’t. It was about twelve of them. I’d never seen them here. Like I said, I grew up in this town. I own a restaurant in town. I know a lot of people,” she added.
Reports of breaking and entering, theft and looting have led local officials affected by the flood to impose curfews in some communities, including White Sulphur Springs and Alderson. The curfews was implemented via city ordinance. However, officials in both municipalities failed to provide those ordinances when requested.
Judy Hoover has been volunteering her time at the Alderson Community Center, which is now functioning as a shelter and donation center. She says her home was not affected by flooding, but she’s glad there’s a curfew in her hometown.
“Our house is sitting there all day. Of course, it is locked. But, you know, locked doors don’t keep people out. I do know that some other people have been concerned,” Hoover said.
“I don’t think we’ve had any [looting or break-ins] in Alderson this year, which I’m very proud of. It seems that everybody has stuck together. But, it’s still a concern.”
Patrolman Mac Brackenrich, of the Alderson Police Department, has been enforcing the 11 o’clock curfew in the town that’s split between Greenbrier and Monroe counties.
Brackenrich, like many other city officials in Alderson, says the curfew is “out of an abundance of caution” and most everyone is cooperating. Mostly, it’s just a warning. He’ll pull up to teenagers walking around or vehicles on the streets and simply tell them to go home.
But around 11:30 Monday night, Brackenrich wrote his first two citations for residents violating the curfew after stopping a car driving the wrong way down a one-way street.
Credit Dave Mistich / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
A gas station is left vacant on Monday, June 27, 2016 along Riverview Dr. in Alderson, West Virginia. The city imposed a curfew to stave off potential theft.
“I’m going to cite them both for the curfew,” he said as he hopped back into his truck, “just because he was well aware of the curfew and she was well aware of the curfew, too.”
Down Route 60 in Fayette County, Sheriff Steve Kessler confirms his department made one arrest for theft-related crimes following last week’s flood. He says they’ve received other complaints from county residents and is quick to ask those out and about to heed the warning.
“We were just told that they was people coming into the area, sitting on four wheelers, and four wheel drive vehicles cruising through. We pretty much know who lives in those areas, we’ll just stop and check them. If you don’t live there, you don’t belong there,” said Kessler.
In other flood-affected areas, there’s no official count of how many complaints or reports have been filed with law enforcement. Resources are stretched so thin that, in many cases, paperwork has yet to be filed with city or county clerks’ offices.
Pharmacist Aaron Gwinn in Lewisburg says that’s the case with the incident at his store. He feels the attempted break in was an isolated incident, but thinks many similar ones in the area were a matter of survival and not maliciousness. He recounts an incident reported at his church as the storm hit the area.
“In my church that same night, in Harts Run, somebody had broken into the church. However, they were just, obviously, seeking refuge. They used some tablecloths to cover up with and slept through the night, helped themselves to some coffee and that sort of thing—and left twenty dollars into the offering plate and did not destroy anything,” Gwinn said.
“They took good care of the place. No police reports were filed because we were glad they were able to find a dry place to sleep for the night,” he added.
Gwinn, like many others in areas affected by the storm, feels the goodness of the community far outweighs reports of theft or hostility.
However, city officials in White Sulphur Springs say a curfew remains in place indefinitely — at least until a large number of residents are able to return to their homes and recovery efforts aren’t occupying so much of law enforcement’s time. Alderson city officials say Wednesday night marked the final night of the town’s curfew.
The Greenbrier Classic’s free ticket giveaway has prompted officials to look for more volunteers to help this year’s golf tournament run smoothly.
Greenbrier owner Jim Justice says in a news release he’ll hold a drawing in which one volunteer will win $20,000 at the end of the tournament.
The tournament is the week of July 4 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Earlier this month, Justice announced that fans will get in for free.
Volunteers will receive a tournament shirt and other items, including meal vouchers. They can choose between a free round of golf or a spa treatment.
Volunteers working four to seven shifts will get a one-night stay at the resort. Those with eight or more shifts will get a round of golf for two and a two-night stay.
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is set to speak at a judicial conference at The Greenbrier resort.
Roberts is scheduled for a question-and-answer session Wednesday in White Sulphur Springs with Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Roberts also spoke at the 4th Circuit’s conference at The Greenbrier in 2013, 2011 and 2009.
President George W. Bush named Roberts the high court’s chief justice in 2005.
He received his law degree from Harvard, and was a judge on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 2003 to 2005.
Keith Urban and The Band Perry will perform in concert during this year’s Greenbrier Classic golf tournament.
Officials of the PGA Tour event said Thursday the country music acts will perform Wednesday, July 1, at the State Fair of West Virginia’s amphitheater in Fairlea the day before the tournament begins at the White Sulphur Springs resort.
Concerts by Miranda Lambert and husband Blake Shelton on July 3 were previously announced.
The $129 price for a tournament badge includes admission to the golf course the entire week and a lawn seat to each concert. Other weekly badges for the tournament, golf course hospitality tents and the concerts start at $179.
Concert tickets aren’t sold separately.
Last year’s badges were $60 and included admission to one concert.
